WCN Advisory
Who we are

A partnership twenty-five years in the making.

WCN Advisory was founded by partners who have known and worked alongside one another for twenty-five years, across London, the Gulf and China.

The backgrounds are deliberately complementary — corporate affairs and government relations; cross-border capital and relationships; finance and geopolitics — under a single senior team. Every mandate is led and delivered by the team.

The work is discreet and reserved for the projects that matter. We are measured by standing in the market over time, not by activity.

We built WCN because too few advisers could help ambitious companies build the relationships, regulatory standing and reputation a new market demands — in the months and years before lawyers, banks or agencies have a role.

Toby Ward

Toby Ward

Managing Partner

Toby advises business and government leaders on the parts of a programme that rely on relationships, judgement and the long-term management of reputation. Across fifteen years in London, Europe and the Gulf, he has worked at the intersection of corporate affairs, government relations and international positioning.

Selected experience

  • Hanover Communications — six years in London, latterly heading the financial-services practice through Brexit and regulatory reform
  • Accenture — four years leading UK and Ireland government relations, driving European market access into the Netherlands and Finland
  • Consulum, Riyadh and Dubai — Director then Senior Director on economic-regulator, investor-attraction and Vision 2030 sovereign-fund mandates

Expertise

  • International relations and public affairs
  • Strategic positioning and stakeholder engagement
  • Partnerships, governance and reputation
James Cole

James Cole

Senior Adviser

James has spent fifteen years building capital relationships between Asia and the Middle East. His work is with people rather than process — who should meet whom, in what sequence, and when a relationship is ready to carry a decision. He divides his time between Shanghai and the Gulf.

Selected experience

  • Arup, London and Hong Kong — six years in architecture, design and strategic advisory across Asia-Pacific
  • Shanghai — a decade advising families, developers and corporate clients on Gulf market entry
  • The Gulf — five years advising Chinese family offices, developers and industrial groups entering the region, and Gulf institutions building exposure to China

Expertise

  • China–Gulf capital relationships and senior access
  • Family office, real estate and long-horizon capital
  • Relationship-led positioning and market navigation
Harry Nicholls

Harry Nicholls

Senior Adviser

A Mandarin speaker who began his career in investment banking, Harry brings financial fluency to work that is political and reputational rather than transactional. He moved from the energy sector to advising African governments on their relationships with China, and has spent the past decade on reputation and public affairs across the Gulf and Asia.

Selected experience

  • Investment banking — began his career in the energy sector, on cross-border transactions
  • African governments — counsel to state clients on their relationships with China
  • Gulf and Asia — a decade leading reputation, public affairs and stakeholder programmes for governments, sovereign investors, ministers and chief executives

Expertise

  • Cross-border capital and relationships
  • Geopolitics and international development
  • Strategic communications, public affairs and market access
The wider team

A standing network, drawn on as each mandate requires.

Beyond the core team, WCN engages a trusted network of senior advisers and subject-matter experts — former officials, operators and specialists — across the regions and disciplines the corridor demands.

Regions

  • The Gulf — GCC capitals and free zones
  • Greater China — Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong
  • The United Kingdom and Europe

Disciplines

  • Government and regulatory affairs
  • Sovereign and institutional capital
  • Legal, tax and corporate structuring counsel
  • Sector specialists — energy, technology, infrastructure

Engaged for

  • Named introductions at principal level
  • On-the-ground intelligence and early sight of change
  • Technical review alongside the core team